The subject matter disclosed herein relates to economic enhancement and long-term maintenance scheduling of power generation facilities.
Traditionally, power generation facilities, or units within, are operated to meet immediate goals such as the market demand for power and emission regulations. These power generation facilities may include, for example, integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants capable of generating energy from various hydrocarbon feedstock, such as coal, relatively cleanly and efficiently. IGCC technology may convert the hydrocarbon feedstock into a gas mixture of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2), i.e., syngas, by reaction with oxygen and steam in a gasifier. These gases may be cleaned, processed, and utilized as fuel in a conventional combined cycle power plant. For example, the syngas may be fed into a combustor of a gas turbine of the IGCC power plant and ignited to power a gas turbine engine for use in the generation of electricity. That is, the gas turbine engine may combust a mixture of fuel and air to generate hot combustion gases, which in turn drive one or more turbines to generate electricity. Other types of power generation facilities may include coal fired or natural gas power plants.
The operation of, for example, a gas turbine in a power generation facility may typically be constrained in such a way that the expected wear on part life is known. Based on this expected wear on part life, operators may make a decision as to whether or not to produce power at a given time, or to cease power production for scheduled maintenance on one or more portions of, for example, the gas turbine engine. However, these scheduled maintenance periods may lead to undesirable outages of the power generation facility during a peak power generating season. Thus, there is a need for active scheduling of maintenance for portions of a power generation facility to avoid outages during favorable power generating periods.